Large networks, such as communication networks, must be able to deploy and implement new services cost effectively. These systems are complex by their very nature and often rely on a set of operation systems that sit in the back office of a carrier and control the flow of provisioning and maintenance commands that ultimately actually manage the network plant, i.e. the physical equipment.
The provisioning flow often starts with a customer request, as taken by a customer service representative, and moves through a service management layer, into a network management layer and ultimately to the physical equipment. This system allows a carrier to process and implement orders for service in an orderly manner. Because of the large volume of such orders, efficient processing is generally mandatory.
Operating in tandem with the ordering systems are adjunct systems that perform maintenance, provide correlation (e.g., phone number correlation with respect to accounts and/or physical equipment) and attend to the general health of the network. Such adjunct systems, for example, monitor and service the network, collect alarms, and suggest corrective actions in the presence of faults. Also operating in conjunction with the provisioning systems are business operation systems; such as billing which allows the carrier to realize revenue from the provisioning of its services.
Collectively, these systems are called operations support systems (OSS), and they form a large part of the operational assets of the business. These systems have been installed over time and represent a present method of doing business. The interaction of the various points of the system are complex and the overall invested capital in the system is large. It should be appreciated that is not simply the systems themselves that are complex, but the system databases contain information as to how a carrier does business. For example, the databases contain the topology of network interconnection, the equipment inventory, the subscriber database, and the subscriber services database. These are very large databases that represent a carrier's ability to deal with its customers and its network.
Looking at the evolution of carrier networks over the last 20 years, there has been little innovation in terms of how and what services are offered by these carriers. Most of the bottom line revenue of large carriers today is generated from TDM services, such as, T1s, DS1s, and analog voice. The equipment which has delivered those services has remained very similar over this time period. Typically, this equipment includes class 5 switches, digital cross-connect systems, digital loop carriers, and SONET transport equipment. The operating companies (primarily the regional Bell operating companies (ROBCs)) have gone through several incremental evolutions of that equipment, but the fundamental model of how service is delivered and what service is delivered has remained fairly static. Even new services such as broad-band delivery of DSL over copper, roughly fit the traditional model and only requires incremental changes to the operations support systems for proper operation.
Today there is a trend toward offering converged equipment that is not based on a TDM model, but rather is based on packet switching, whether it be IP or ATM. This new equipment is capable of delivering the traditional services, but it also provides a platform for delivering new services. Typically such converged products have seen little significant deployment in large carriers because their method of operation has not been compatible with the deployed back office systems due to their novel architecture. Thus, a problem exists when it is desired to introduce into the traditional operating environment equipment and/or services which operate in a manner unknown to the legacy operations support systems.
Currently, devices and services which are not consistent with existing carrier operations support systems are being implemented by competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs), many of which have failed. These CLECs have been able to deploy new devices and services because they did not have legacy operations support systems to contend with. In fact, one reason for such failures could possibly be that the CLECs were unable to scale their businesses because they did not employ robust operations support systems. This follows because efficiency in the communications business is achieved by scale and repeatability. If the back-office can not support scaling, it might be able to introduce new devices and services quickly, but at the expense of loss of management control, which would include installation, maintenance, trouble locating and billing.